Boys! Throw your voice into a trunk, under the bed or anywhere. Lots of fun fooling teacher, policeman or friends. The Ventrilo is a little instrument, fits in the mouth out of sight, used with above Bird Calls, etc. Anyone can use it. Never fails. A 64-page course on Ventriloquism together with the Ventrilo. All for 10¢ postpaid.

And here's the book included with your order.

No. 3461Art of Ventriloquism

How to Throw Your Voiceby George W. Calahan

With Instructions For Using and Making

The Ventrilo (See chapter 8)

Published by Johnson Smith & Company, Detroit, Michigan

The Ventrilo was similar to a Swiss Warbler or Double Throat which makes bird sounds, or a Swazzle, used to make the sound of the puppet character Punch in a Punch and Judy show.

The Ventrilo was a piece of thin membrane in a metal frame, and made noise when your breath vibrated that membrane, the same principle used in a kazoo. You would hide the Ventrilo inside your mouth, and you could make high-pitched noises.

The Ventrilo device looked something like this.

The ad says:

"The Ventrilo is a little instrument, fits in the mouth out of sight, used with above Bird Calls, etc. Anyone can use it. Never fails."

That's true. The Ventrilo does fit in the mouth out of sight, and you can make bird calls with it, and anyone can use it. But that doesn't mean that the Ventrilo is used to make the sound of a human voice coming from anywhere.

Did you assume that? Ah, then you were deceived a bit by the ad, weren't you?

If you wanted to learn how to make a human voice coming from somewhere else, you needed to learn the art of ventriloquism, and study the rest of the 64-page book. And, by the way, about half of the book was ads for other products you could buy.